Here is a little run down of several influences that have helped shape the characters and world of Superzeroes.

BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES

Batman the Animated Series is romantic, thrilling, dramatic and action packed. In my opinion it is the pinnacle of superhero stories in the medium of film and TV perfectly capturing Batman and the world he inhabits. Bruce Timm's simple but bold character designs seamlessly blend with its modern meets retro aesthetics, giving Batman the Animated Series a sense of timelessness - Something we hope to achieve with SUPERZEROES.

DARWYN COOKE

Unlike many of his peers, Darwyn's stories were filled to brim with hope and optimism, making the characters heroic and inspirational instead of dark and brooding. This sense of joy also translated into his art work which is sleek, clean and classical. His sense of page layout, composition and visual storytelling was second to none -it is a style that is very much an inspiration on the overall look and design of SUPERZEROES.

BATMAN 66

Yes, it's silly. Yes, it's campy, but by jove - it's fantastic! Batman 66 is bright, bold and unabashedly fun. While SUPERZEROES will be more sophisticated from a storytelling and character perspective, we still want it to be bright, colorful and full of spandex costumes. It also goes to show how versatile a character BATMAN is, which is something we want to instill into the characters of SUPERZEROES.

GHOSTBSUTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS is one of the greatest comedies of all time, focusing on a team of blue collar heroes, starting their own business, attempting to save the city. The four lead actors have fantastic chemistry together, playing off one anothers strengths and weaknesses, making every performance that much stronger. While the characters occasionally bicker/disagree, there is a great sense of warmth and affection among them. Each team member has a distinct characteristic at their core - Brains (Egon), Mouth (Peter), Heart (Ray), and the everyman (Winston) - A dynamic that has a strong influence on our very own heroes.

THE X-FILES

For over 10 series and 2 movies The X-Files Flip-flopped between monster of the week and mythology centric episodes. With weird and scary stories of Fluke Monsters and shark boys, to Alien conspiracies and personal journeys. It's a credit to the writing team that you learn just as much about the characters in the monster of the week episodes as you do in the mythological episodes (if not more) from Mulder and Scully's fears, dreams and desires.

We promise that our mythology won't be half as convoluted.

LOONEY TUNES

Ever since I can remember, I have been obsessed with the Looney Tunes. From the fantastic animation, unique story lines and strong characters. Every Looney Tunes short stands on its own, which is something I am keen to emulate in SUPERZEROES. While there is backstory/mythology to the world SUPERZEROES, it is important to me that every episode can be viewed on its own and that it doesn't get too bogged down with backstory or unnecessary plot points.

Looney Tunes have influenced SUPERZEROES in other ways. Not only is our character Resurrection boy a living cartoon character with an inability to die, the second episode is half animated and is a direct homage to the Looney Tunes shorts I grew up watching.

CORNETTO TRILOGY/BRITISH COMEDY

Let's get one thing straight, SUPERZEROES is not a spoof! One of the biggest influences are the films of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg- Shaun of the Dead, Hot fuzz and The Worlds End. All incredibly funny films, that would be easy to categorize as paradoy. However, unlike the scary Movie or The Naked Gun films that send up the genre, they are in fact love letters to the zombie, action and sci fi genres; with much more personal stories being told among the madness.

SUPERZEROES also takes influence from slapstick comedies such as Some Mothers do have em and Fawlty Towers to the more bizarre/anarchic comedies such as Monty Python, The Mighty Boosh and The Young Ones to the more relatable and down to earth comedies The Office and I'm Alan partridge.

THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

Marvel have taken their colourful/bold characters and successfully placed them into a 'real word' setting, making them more relatable to a 21st century audience. From the down to earth origins of Iron man, to the intergalactic Guardians of the Galaxy; each film builds on larger world/story, while still telling much more personal stories to keeping the audience invested. They even made us care about a walking/talking tree and a gun toting racoon, which is by no means an easy feat. Kudos!

STAR WARS

The story of Luke Skywalker is one of many classic hero's journey story arcs throughout the history of literature and film- A young, wide eyed boy with hopes and dreams goes on a life changing adventure where he tried and tested before becoming the hero he is destined to become. While SUPERZEROES is very much about the team, at the center is the Story of Jake/Zero who is very much going through his own hero's journey.

Don't worry, there are no Ewoks in SUPERZEROES!

INDEPENDENT MUSIC SCENE

Growing up, I was heavily involved with the Birmingham music scene. I was always intrigued by the dynamics within a band, from the enigmatic front man, the outlandish guitarist, the quiet bassist, and solid/backbone drummer. Do they play well as a team, or is one person leading the charge? These are elements I want to play with and explore within the SUPERZEROES team. I have also admired bands for their 'do it yourself' mentality - be it driving around Europe in a burnt out van, building a fan base, recording albums in their own lock up or pressing/printing their own CDs/T shirts. It is this DIY mentality I want to instill in the team. From making their own costumes/weapons, working for no pay while attempting to make their way up into the big leagues.

BIRMINGHAM

The city itself is such is a ripe source of inspiration, from its diverse cultures, to its unique places and its rich history.

Don't forget you can help make Superzeroes a reality by checking out our indiegogo campaign - we are currently half way to our goal! You can help out by contributing to the campaign (Perks start at £5) and sharing the campaign on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.